'Twas long debated, wheither to a Play

Title:

A Prologue, To Don Carlos [by Otway, first presented 1676]; Acted by Yong Ladys. An: 1696

Primary Text:

MS Folger, 50-1.

Secondary Ed:

1903 Reynolds prints Folger text, 96.

Comment:

Witty, topical, Otway's plays superior to "present" sentimental plays. Anne again attacked the new "whining" heroine in her "Epilogue to Jane Shore" some 18 years later. The tone of this poem sounds very like a heroine in a Shakespearean play; perhaps Hermione in Act I, gently teasing Leantes and urging Polixenes to stay ("we'll thwack you home again . . . "). It was a convention to preface or follow a play with a mocking poem, but this is not quite that.
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